By Monica Islam:

When Hyderabadi filmmaker Deepthi Tadanki set out to research the subject of corrective rape for her upcoming film Satyavadi, she learned about shocking practices which took place in Bangalore. In one instance, a homosexual boy was forced by his family members to engage in sexual intercourse with his own mother, apparently to “cure” him of his “deviant” sexual behavior. The victims have decided to remain silent because they choose to delete memories of such incidents where their own family members have conspired to push them in the throes of lifelong trauma. At least 15 such cases were reported to an Indian LGBT organization over a period of five years.

[caption id="attachment_47258" align="aligncenter" width="800"] For Representational Purposes Only[/caption]

Before one pounces on this opportunity to brand corrective rape as an “Indian problem”, let us take a look at the origin of the term “corrective rape” and at horrific examples from around the world. Corrective rape is defined by ActionAid as “a way of punishing and curing women of their sexual orientation” (I want to emphasize here that men too are victims of corrective rape as illustrated by cases in India and Zimbabwe).

The term was coined in South Africa in the early 2000s when charity workers first noticed an influx of such attacks. It was also during that time when, following a United Nations report, South Africa was repeatedly described as the “rape capital” in the world, having one occurrence of rape in every 17 seconds. The brutal gang-rape and murder of Eudy Simelane, a soccer player training to be a referee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup who identified as a lesbian, brought extensive press attention to this phenomenon of corrective rape, resulting in a few survivors finally speaking up about their ordeal.

Pearl Mali was raped by a priest almost every day for nearly four years since she was 12. When she was impregnated, she was also deprived of her parental rights by her own mother. Mvuleni Fana was gang-raped by four men and was beaten up by them until she passed out. Simphiwe Thandeka was raped by a male relative. When the bleeding girl complained to her mother, the latter dismissed it as a “family matter.” All these incidents were accompanied by verbal abuse. The victims were derided with centuries-old patriarchal remarks, such as “This is what a man tastes like”, “I’ll show you your place”, and “Act like a real woman”. Knives, stones, sticks, and other sharp objects are routinely used during the rape. Apart from psychological trauma, the victims suffer from unwanted pregnancies and HIV infection.

While the world looks up to South Africa for some of the most progressive LGBTQI laws—it is the fifth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, and its Equality Act (2010) outlaws hate crimes, the country’s social and criminal justice systems are lagging far behind. 31 lesbians were killed, resulting in only one conviction. According to a support group, more than 10 lesbians are raped every week. The Telegraph reports that out of 25 rapists, 24 will be acquitted. It further notes that in 2013, UNESCO revealed that schools in the country were failing with regards to gender rights. It appears that homophobic religious sermons have replaced inclusive sex education, inspiring schoolboys to “jack-roll”, a colloquial term for gang-rape in the country. “Homosexuals can change,” said Reverend Oscar Peter Bougardt to journalist Clare Carter. What’s more? 61 per cent of South Africans believe that society should not accept homosexuality; that it is in some way “un-African”.

The situation is no better elsewhere. Angeline Jackson, an LGBTQI activist in Jamaica and a rape survivor who identifies as a homosexual woman, tearfully tells me that she was advised by police to “leave this lifestyle and go back to church” when she went to report the crime. Due to a string of similar attacks in the country, the complaint was eventually accepted and the case moved to court. The perpetrator was handed down a sentence of 27 years, but Angeline felt “victimized all over again” because majority of the charges against the rapist related to possession of firearms and kidnapping. At most four years of imprisonment was ordered for rape because “the legislation in her country did not count forced oral sex as rape.” In 2014, the sentence was overturned on appeal, and Angeline was not even notified about it by the court.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon aptly said, “Violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country, and culture.”

To fight corrective rape, many citizens are taking it in their own hands to act. Deepthi Tadanki is adamant in making the film which is only 40 per cent complete due to financial struggles (and in the face of blog comments accusing her of “conniving with Westerners to defame India”). Angeline Jackson is sharing her experience globally and is battling homophobia through the organization Quality of Citizenship Jamaica. An online petition on Avaaz.org has already collected 947,750 signatures. Before corrective rape threatens any more of your near and dear ones, read about it, create awareness, and act now to criminalize this violent practice.

The post How Countries Are Falling Prey To The Dangerous Concept Of ‘Corrective Rape’ appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Pandurang Hegde:

Agumbe is a small village perched on the mountain range of Western Ghats in Karnataka. It is also called the Cheerapunji of South India as it receives the highest rainfall. It is a popular tourist destination, where people come to watch the sunset from the heights of Western Ghats overlooking the Arabian Sea. The greenery around Agumbe is soothing. But as you walk deep into the forests, you will realise that the greenery has its own shades. The greenery of plantations, especially of the acacia exotic species, is strikingly distinguishable from the natural forest. The natural forest has a soothing effect with a diversity of species, whereas the plantation has only a single species with dry hot conditions.

[caption id="attachment_49203" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Source: Wikimedia Commons[/caption]

There is a close link between these two kinds of greenery in Western Ghats, and in urban centers like Bangalore. The water supply to Bangalore comes from Kaveri, the river that originates in Western Ghats. In order to get regular water supply in urban areas, it is essential to have natural growth forests in the catchments of Kaveri. They are the factories that produce pure water. The plantations are like ‘timber mines’. They are ‘green’ but not in a position to recharge water into our tanks and rivers.

According to scientists like Prof. Madhav Gadgil, “It is essential to conserve these natural forests in Western Ghats to secure the water and food security of millions of people in South India”. The forest cover in hill areas should be 66 percent, to provide ecological security. However, in reality the forest cover is less than 10 percent! This reduced percentage of forests is bound to cause disruptions in water supply for Bangalore. Realising this crucial role of natural forests, the call was given to conserve the remaining natural forests by Western Ghats Expert Ecology Panel headed by Prof. Gadgil.

“I think this is the only practical way to protect the Western Ghats”, he said. Further emphasizing that people at the village level should be given the power to decide and implement conservation measures, rather than politicians and bureaucrats deciding from above.

Unable to digest this suggestion of devolving powers to people, the politicians have rejected the Gadgil committee report and replaced it with a diluted version of the Kasturirangan report. This gives a free hand to politicians to continue destructive practices like mining, diversion of rivers, and changing land use. The watered down report of Kasturirangan fails to conserve the remaining natural forests in Western Ghats. The irony is that even this diluted report is not palatable to politicians.

I met Rama Gawda of Khanapur, near Belgum, who said, “The politicians say that our village will be vacated, we will not be allowed to cultivate and only wildlife will be allowed to survive?” These kind of rumors were spread deliberately by politicians to create fear psychosis among villagers. Realising the threat to their livelihood they were forced to reject the Kasturirangan report. In almost all the consultations across Western Ghats region in Karnataka, the government sponsored consultation process was based on rumors.

The process of extension of green deserts will continue if we allow politicians to decide the fate of Western Ghats. The youth in cities can play a constructive role in linking the Western Ghats to everyday life.

How this can be done?

'Minchu Ideas' is a small group of women who are working in several schools in Bangalore to create awareness on Western Ghats. They have reached thousands of students and through numerous discussions, slideshows and picture competitions, they have shown the importance of Western Ghats. These students are aware that the water they drink comes from Western Ghats.

In order to get continuous water for future generations, we need to conserve the Western Ghats. However, as a person living in this region, I have experienced that it is being gradually converted into green deserts. The naturally biodiverse forest is shrinking and the unnatural monoculture exotic plantations are spreading. This is like expansion of green deserts in Western Ghats. If you look carefully at the rubber plantations in Kerala and acacia plantations in Karnataka, they reveal the myth of these ‘green’ cover. Though it looks green, the plantations do more harm to ecology and destroys the water source adding to climate change.

The politicians are playing a dirty game in perpetuating the same policies that accelerate the destruction of Ghats. This is evident in the way they have rejected the Gadgil report and now refuse to implement even the watered down Kasturirangan report. By the time these parochial games come to an end, we would have caused irreparable damage to these fragile ecosystems in the Western Ghats.

Check Jhatkaa's Western Ghats campaign here. Sign the petition here. 

(Pandurang Hegde is activist of Save Western Ghat Movement, working with Appiko-Chipko Andolan for past three decades. He lives on a small organic farm on the edge of tropical forests in Western Ghats)

The post The ‘Dirty Politics’ That Might Kill The Western Ghats appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Sonam Mittal: 

In 2009, I joined as a volunteer for a well-respected environmental NGO, bright-eyed, idealistic, and ready for change. But in 2012, two years after I joined as an employee, my view of this place was completely and utterly undone, when an older male employee repeatedly sexually harassed me, and the senior management didn’t even blink.

One night at a hotel, on a work trip in October 2012, the man in question was drunk when he made an official call to me at around 10-11pm, telling me to vacate my room and insisting I sleep in his. He approached me physically despite my obvious discomfort, followed me around, insisted on force feeding me my birthday cake and sat next to me at breakfast when there were multiple other seats empty. At times, two of my male colleagues had to physically place themselves between the two of us to stop him from coming on to me.

While this was just one manifestation of misogyny forced on me, the 'informal work culture' the organization prides itself in already constituted such vile behaviour with impunity. I lost count of the misogynistic comments directed towards me and other women. My hard work as a fundraiser was dismissed with comments like: "It’s easy for you, you just have to smile and the supporter would cut off a hefty cheque for you."

Further, senior employees have joked about my 'character' during official meetings, asking, "Who’s in her room today?" or "Is that person in her room, or in her?" People laughed, including those who would later constitute the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). If I tripped on the stairs and showed up in bandages the next day, everyone joked that I must’ve been drunk. When there was a theft at my place, everyone joked that I was drunk and passed out. These guys didn’t even spare my choice of food in my tiffin box. Even female colleagues (some of whom were part of the ICC) made me feel that it was all my fault, that people bullied me because I let them, that I didn’t know how to "set boundaries". These were the same people who told a senior female employee she’s 'hysterical' because she’s 'menopausal'. Her source of 'hysteria'? The rampant sexual harassment that she wanted senior management to tackle and address.

I’d had such implicit trust in my fellow campaigners, activists and social workers that I never thought I’d have to familiarize myself with the mechanism of harassment complaints. When I got over my initial hesitations (fearing the resulting tensions,) and filed an official complaint two months after the incident, there was no follow-up, and no verbal or written communication that year, or the year after that. Vishaka Guidelines and the subsequent act, The 2013 Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act clearly instructs the ICC to carry out an internal investigation and gather evidence, neither of which was done. Instead, my harasser denied the entire incident, saying that 'he didn’t mean it in that way!' The official 'punishment' involved swapping his role with another colleague’s. I was told a man should get a second chance, even though two other female colleagues of mine had fallen victim to my harasser before me, which the senior management was fully aware of. In 2015, the senior management ordered my harasser to apologize to me through this email (supposedly the "penance" that "lacerates" him):

"I feel, I owe you a personal apology for my insensitive behaviour towards you. You have been a wonderful colleague and friend, and I would not intentionally hurt your feelings. Please accept my apology. I hope you will be able to forgive me. I respect you and your abilities, and I hope we can continue to work well together and be good friends."

It is a disgrace that now, 2 years, 5 months and 17 days later the first official communication from the HR department comes to me. It is a disgrace that the justification for not taking further action is the HR head’s belief 'that this behaviour would not repeat'.

If something like this was handled so poorly, how would they have treated a much graver incident?
In 2013, amidst this environment of victim blaming and trivializing sexual harassment, something happened to me that left me too terrified to speak, and even if I had, I knew no one in this organization would come to my aid.
It was after a party, when a male colleague whom I knew quite well found me unconscious and raped me. You cannot imagine the pain and fear I was engulfed in. Every morning [envoke_twitter_link]I was painfully aware that my workplace was peopled with those who harassed, raped and bullied me[/envoke_twitter_link]. Some were my managers.

Doubt came swimming in. Was I at fault? Did I bring this upon myself? Would anyone in that workplace even believe me if I decided to complain about my rapist? It was only after I quit that I built up the courage to approach the HR head. They refused my complaint, giving me the explanation that no action can be taken against an existing employee on the allegations made by an ex-employee, and it didn’t matter if I was an employee at the time of the incident.

The string of incidents took a toll on my physical and emotional health. I was constantly stressed. I developed low self-esteem. I spent one year in denial, trying to forget the memory of those hands accessing my body without my permission, and the pain of my resultant injuries that lasted two weeks. I almost stopped eating and drinking water with a pointless hope to stop myself from performing basic bodily functions. My previous incidents in the organization had broken me down to an extent that even the thought of approaching a hospital to treat my injuries was far from my mind.

Going back to office was the most difficult thing. I had to face all the silent stares and smirks my rapist gave me on our work floor. I had to sit next to him and work along with him. Today I suffer further when I learn of more instances like mine within the organization. The man who raped me has harassed other employees and volunteers. I never had the strength to report my rape, neither to the police, nor to my employers. How could I when the "processes had failed" me once already?

Tired of the constant harassment, I decided to leave this organization. On informing my manager, I was laughed at further, with him saying he was relieved he didn’t have to do paperwork regarding my role any longer. They laughed about me even after I left the organization in 2014.

The trauma I endured was deemed inconsequential in the face of a new 'crisis' - government crackdown on NGOs. But the fashion in which the Modi government is treating the organization is no different than how it has treated its employees. Criticism and dissent had no place in this organization, which carries the motto of 'You cannot muzzle dissent in a democracy' in all its social media communications. Employees who were asking uncomfortable questions were silenced, bullied and thrown out.

And why this institutional inaction? The NGO delinked environmental justice from women’s basic human rights, despite the fact that women face the double injustice of climate change and gender inequality!

As a fundraiser attached to the organization, I had a direct, respectful working relationship with donors. I feel sad their money is now being wasted on the salaries of repeat sexual offenders; that their hard-earned money now sits in the bank account of my rapist; that donors are funding a senior management that has allowed all this ugliness. They have now launched a solar streetlight project that also aims to promote 'women’s safety'. How ironic can that be!
The NGO ignored the mandates not just under Vishaka Guidelines but also under the 2013 Act timely action, time bound communication and gender sensitization trainings for all employees. This NGO ignored my basic rights. It ignored me.

I’m fearless now. I’m stronger now. I don’t care if people respond to my story with personal attacks and fabrications, and call me an 'attention-seeker'. [envoke_twitter_link]My reality is much stronger than people’s simple perceptions[/envoke_twitter_link]. I know I’m not the only one, and I fight this not just for myself, but for the right of all women to live free from harassment, especially in civil society.

The post After 2 Years Of Sexual Harassement At The NGO I Worked For, An Apology E-mail Is All I Got appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Simon Mabon:

The self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, also known as IS, ISIS, ISIL and Daesh, took control of Iraq’s second city, Mosul on June 9 2014. It instantly implemented a brutal rule that resulted in hunCdreds of deaths. Ancient relics were destroyed, and an IS stronghold established. Using equipment seized through fighting in Syria, the group was able to defeat an increasingly demoralised Iraqi army, many of whom fled when the group was approaching.

[caption id="attachment_49344" align="aligncenter" width="829"] Destruction from an early battle between IS and Iraqi forces in July 2014. EPA/STR[/caption]

The fall of Mosul marked the beginning of a staggering year in which IS tore across the Middle East. The group had emerged from the desert that straddled the Syrian-Iraqi border just four days before taking the city; it soon made huge gains into Iraqi territory, further decimating a state that had struggled to regain a sense of autonomy since the US-led invasion of 2003.

The capture of Mosul and ensuing IS rampage would ultimately bring down the rule of Nouri al-Maliki, who had been prime minister of Iraq since 2006.

Fertile ground

[envoke_twitter_link]In the 12 years since the US-led invasion, power in Iraq has become increasingly decentralised[/envoke_twitter_link], with the governments of first al-Maliki and now Haider al-Abadi struggling to gain control over a state that was becoming increasingly divided along tribal and sectarian lines.

These divisions were deepened by a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, with both states offering support for co-religious kin across the Middle East. Along with Syria and Bahrain, Iraq became one of the primary arenas in this conflict, and the ensuing chaos helped facilitate the emergence of IS.

To make things worse, the Arab uprisings in the region had strained relations between states and societies to breaking point. Power seeped away from the core to the periphery, and ultimately made space for groups such as IS to grow.

IS emerged from the embers of al-Qaeda in Iraq, facilitated, in part, by the US prison, Camp Bucca. It was inside Bucca, in southern Iraq, that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, now the self-proclaimed Caliph Ibrahim, developed a network of contacts that would some years later become IS.

Exploiting division

Although headed by a group of Salafists and supported by thousands of foreign fighters, the group also draws upon different facets of Syrian and Iraqi society. Across Iraq, IS was able to draw upon ex-members of the Ba'ath party and members of Sunni tribes, who historically had challenged Baghdad’s rule but had also long feared the violence of Shia militias.

[caption id="attachment_49345" align="aligncenter" width="668"] Worshipers in Mosul attend a mosque shortly after an appearance by IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. EPA/STR[/caption]

Being able to recruit from these groups, by virtue of offering them protection against Shia militias and indeed, from the perceived discrimination of the Shia led-governments, IS was able to cultivate support from a much larger base.

The road ahead

Yet after seizing land and cultivating support, the group also had to govern, which has proved far more difficult in the long run.

Initially, IS successfully deployed a “velvet glove, iron fist” approach, fusing a soft power governance strategy with draconian punishments for those who opposed it. Fear is a key component of the IS strategy, as evidenced in the increasingly brutal methods it uses to execute opponents. As its rampage went on, mass killings of enemy combatants became a central tactic: after seizing a Syrian military base in 2014, the group posted a video of mass beheadings of the soldiers who fought them.

The point of all this is to strike fear into anyone who stands in the group’s path. The treatment of prisoners, including Shi'a Muslims, non IS-supporting Sunni Muslims, people of other faiths and ethnicities, women, homosexuals and people from “the West” has been well documented, with news of this treatment travelling quicker than the group itself. Perhaps this explains the ease with which IS has been able to seize large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria. Equally, while IS does have a clearly defined power structure, it has proved that it can adapt quickly to changing circumstances.

It used military equipment seized in Syria in Iraq and was then able to seize better weapons and use them in the capture of Mosul.

On May 17 2015, IS captured the city of Ramadi in the Anbar Province of Iraq. Just three days later, it took the 2,000 year-old city of Palmyra in Syria, highlighting its ability to operate on several fronts at once.

While some suggest that the fall of Ramadi shows a lack of will in the Iraqi army to fight off IS, it is perhaps equally a testament to the group’s ability to innovate. To take the town, it used what are known as vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDS) – large and well-armoured vehicles laden with explosives that can withstand small-arms fire, allowing IS to penetrate strong defences.

Ultimately, as the start of Ramadan approaches, IS is likely to use the first anniversary since the declaration of a caliphate and the seizure of Mosul to demonstrate its continued relevance and longevity in defiance of the international coalition against it.

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

The post A Year Into The Caliphate, How Has IS Managed To Capture So Much Territory? appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By John Thekkayyam:

I ride a bicycle every day from daybreak till the roads become full of automobiles. It has a basket that carries my phone, wallet and camera. On this day, I decided to haul the bike up a walk bridge, to cross over to the other side where a tree lined avenue awaited me. The two men on the bridge were apparently regular walkers and there was this wonderful play of sunlight on one side of the wire mesh so I thought, let's shoot this from the bike with one hand like Zen monks clapping.

It all fell in place while editing. I thought it would be a good time to officially come out about my mental illness and all I had was one and a half minutes. The bit from the Syd Barret tribute was an obvious choice; also it was the music I grew up with never knowing it would make sense this way. Most memories and anecdotes of my illness are shocking, humiliating and cringe worthy despite my best efforts at compensating. The spotlight invariably shines on them all the time. As a survivor, I would like to move the spotlight towards other areas and maybe piece together a story that sheds more light on my illness and changes the way people see us.

The post “My Superpower Was That I Could Hear Voices And Slip Into Delusions Of My Choosing” appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Praveen Chakravarty:

“I am ready to consume poison to crush the snake of communalism,” said Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, almost conjuring up an image of Lord Shiva with the serpent Vasuki coiled around his neck.

Lalu Yadav’s insinuation was that, to save the state of Bihar from the venom of BJP’s communalism, he was ready to accept the leadership of his once arch rival and current Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar for the upcoming elections in Bihar. Nitish Kumar was thus crowned the leader of the newly concocted alliance of the Janata Dal (United), RJD and the Congress party to contest against the BJP in the Bihar elections later this year.

[caption id="attachment_49420" align="aligncenter" width="763"] Image Credit: IndiaSpend.com [/caption]

The rhetoric of communalism aside, surely the counterfactual maths–had their votes been combined in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP led NDA could have been reduced to a mere 11 seats from the current 31–would have played a catalytic role in Lalu Yadav’s embrace of Nitish Kumar.

A cursory analysis of vote shares of all these parties in the 2014 elections would make it seem obvious that it didn’t need a snake charmer to woo them together. However, our trend analysis of voter choices in Bihar over the past decade reveals that the upcoming elections may turn out to be a much closer snakes and ladders battle despite the potential consolidation of anti-BJP votes.

About 155 million voters across 243 constituencies in Bihar have exercised their electoral choices in three Vidhan Sabha and three Lok Sabha elections since 2004. The BJP, JD(U), RJD, Congress and Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party have each contested elections in Bihar in various combinations. When presented a ballot with the BJP, JD(U), RJD and Congress candidates, an increasing number of Biharis choose the BJP candidate over all the others combined. In the 2004 Lok Sabha election, out of 100 voters in Bihar that had a BJP or a RJD/JD(U)/Congress candidate on their ballot, 63 voters chose either of the three parties and 36 chose the BJP.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha, 40 out of 100 voters chose the BJP and 45 voters chose either of the three parties with the rest choosing others. The difference in contested vote shares between BJP and the combined vote shares of the three parties has narrowed from 26% in the 2004 Lok Sabha election to 5% in the 2014 elections. This is not to be confused with the simplistic overall vote shares of each party made available by the Election Commission. This is an analysis of how have voters in Bihar voted over the past six elections since 2004 when there was a choice of a candidate from one or more of JD(U), RJD and Congress parties vis-à-vis the BJP.
There is a clear decline in percentage of voters choosing the RJD or JD(U) or Congress combined in every election since the 2005 October Vidhan Sabha elections. While it is numerically true that in the most recent 2014 Lok Sabha elections, an alliance of JD(U), RJD and Congress would have won more votes than the NDA in 163 out of the 243 constituencies, trends matter more than actual levels.

On average, of 100 voters that had a choice among each of these parties, 53 chose the RJD/JD(U)/Congress combine in the 2005 Vidhan Sabha elections, 54 in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, 50 in the 2010 Vidhan Sabha election and 45 in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. It is also abundantly clear from the analysis that contrary to ideological claims, the RJD and JD(U) had no choice but to join hands to try to stall the BJP. It is evident from the chart that the gap between the contested vote shares of the combined force and the BJP has narrowing consistently and the gap most recently in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections was 5%. Will five more out of every 100 voters switch to the BJP in the 2015 Bihar elections to enable a BJP victory against the combined force or will this narrowing gap reverse, is the poisonous question for Lalu Prasad Yadav.

This article was originally published on IndiaSpend.

The post The 5% Poison Pill For Lalu Yadav appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Devanik Saha:

Retail e-commerce sales in India are expected to reach $17.5 billion (Rs 105,120 crore) by 2018, from $5.3 billion (Rs 31,800 crore) in 2014, according to data analysed by eMarketer, a digital-research firm, but only two of 10 internet users in India shop online.

Despite having the third-largest internet user base in the world with 200 million users at the end of 2014, India does not feature in the top ten e-commerce markets in the world, according to an eMarketer report. The reasons centre on low Internet reach, slow internet speeds outside the metropolitan cities and poor customer services.

India’s e-commerce sales in 2014 were $5.3 billion (Rs 31,800 crore), 1/80th the size of China’s $426.26 billion (Rs 2,557,760 crore) and 1/58th the size of the US’ $305.6 billion (Rs 1,833,900 crore).

“If you look at Japan, China and US, e-commerce became popular as early as 2002-2003. It has taken them about 12-13 years to reach where they have reached. E-commerce really took off in India only in 2012-13. It will take India also that much time to reach there,” Rajnish (he uses only one name), a technology expert, said.

China: Number 1 in e-commerce with skyrocketing growth ahead

China and the US accounted for more than 55% of global internet retail sales in 2014. China’s growth over the next five years will widen the gap between the two countries.

China will likely exceed $1 trillion (Rs 6,000,000 crore) in retail ecommerce sales by 2018, accounting for more than 40% of the total worldwide.

E-commerce sales are expected to increase 89% to $2.489 trillion (Rs 14,934,000 crore, 8.8% of overall retail sales) in 2018.

The UK leads the world with 88% penetration. Ironically, China with 55.2% and US with 74.4% penetration do not feature in the top five.

Indian e-commerce has a long way to go

“E-commerce in India still has a lot of friction,” Rajnish said. “Till that is solved, it will be hard for penetration to go beyond 30%. For example, India has very low credit-card penetration and the cash-on-delivery (COD) model is why Flipkart really took off.”

People above 35 are not very comfortable using their debit card online. PayTm and others solve this problem but there is a lot of friction. “I use PayTm for Uber and it is still a process that has friction. ​In US, the return policy is very generous. I bought a coat from Amazon in the Bay area; it ended up being the wrong size. My experience of changing to the correct size was very seamless. When I bought a down jacket in Bangalore, and it ended up being the wrong size, getting the right size was really a painful experience,” said Rajnish.

That view is echoed by Paritosh Sharma, an advisor to tech startups and an entrepreneur with PayUMoney, a digital-payment platform.

“Digital buying has an attached expectation to it. I place the order and it should appear in front of me over the next two or three days. In many cases this does not happen. Also, in a lot of cases (especially in tier-2 and tier-3 cities) in India, if you get a product that is not of the exact quality that you ordered, returning it is a major problem. Most people, hence, prefer what’s available in a physical retail store,” Sharma said.

There are two more reasons for low online sales, said Sharma.

First, the internet infrastructure in India is poor. If one steps outside city limits, you automatically are shifted from 3G to an Edge (a lower-speed) connection, deterring buyers.

Second, lack of good service and support. While most Indian e-commerce companies are sprucing up their support via phone and digital media, it’s quite haphazard. Most companies still lack processes to ensure customer satisfaction and trust.

This article was originally published on IndiaSpend.

The post India’s E-Commerce 1/80th Size Of China’s appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Shreya Bhattacharya:

Women menstruate. It's a natural, biological fact. However, society attaches wider connotations to the process of menstruation, all of them negative. Menstruation is often made to be one of the all-eclipsing facets about a woman's body-jokes on how they become "irrational" or plain old "crazy" during "that time of the month".

The time of menstruation becomes another excuse for patriarchal society to impose further rules to regulate their behaviour and their attitude towards their own bodies. We have all heard such illogical restrictions - don't go to places of worship, don't touch pickles, don't go into the kitchen, and a similar series of don'ts. Menstruation is perceived as something dirty, impure and shameful, to be strictly kept hush-hush. This is indicative of women's existing lower status in society.

You will probably remember the time your parents explained menstruation to you or the fact that it's just another biological phenomenon. Or not, most likely. Because it is quite possible that conversation never really happened. To dispel the taboos and misconceptions regarding menstruation, it is important to begin an open conversation. With women sharing their personal experience with first period, this video by Old Delhi Films is a step in that direction.

The post [Y]ral: “My First Period” – Girls From Delhi University Share Their Personal Experiences appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Ruchika Thakur:

Delhi is caught in a brutal tug of war between the Centre and the State. The mutual tugging has been going on for many decades, and it doesn’t look like the pull from either side would be loosened anytime soon. Everyone wants to have a piece of Delhi for obvious reasons, and before every election, whichever party is in opposition in the centre supports the idea of full statehood for Delhi.

[caption id="attachment_49530" align="aligncenter" width="751"] Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons[/caption]

It is a Union Territory with a special status which gives its assembly the power to make laws for all issues except on the matter of land, law and the Delhi police. But even a revision of municipal bye-laws to increase fines on littering requires the government of India’s approval. Thus, the elected government has very limited powers. The union has its presence in the day to day administration in Delhi by way of a Lieutenant Governor appointed by the Centre. This power is given by Article 239 (AA) of the Constitution and the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991.

Why the call for statehood?

It is one of the most populated cities in the world and with increasing size and population, the elected mandate should be given the power to govern the city. Delhi is a union territory with an elected assembly, thus the assembly should be given ample room to administer for the people.

One of the most crucial matters is that the police is not under the control of the State government. There are 60 other such subjects which cannot be administered without the acquiesce of the Union government, states Shailaja Chandra in her article published in February. This kind of irregularity leaves the state government in a condition of policy paralysis, unable to bring quality reforms without the assent of the Union Government. If the main functionaries are under the control of the central government, then it raises serious questions on the existence of a state government in the capital.

Delhi, being the capital, is bound to enjoy special status; moreover the situation in Delhi is not unique and is reflected in various new capitals around the world such as Washington DC, which is a Federal district under the direct jurisdiction of the Federal government.

Why it is unlikely that Delhi will be granted a full statehood

The city being the capital of the country has important establishments, security of which is the responsibility of the central government. Besides, a capital has to be structured and maintained in a proper function which can only happen if the big brother is in charge. Thus, the debate surrounding the statehood is not likely to die anytime soon.

The Centre and the State are both right in their own ways. The centre can’t let go of control over the capital of the country while the state government requires autonomy for the smoother administration of the capital. The solution lies in the better implementation of policies and working in congruence. Finding a better way to deal with the situation is the way forward rather than strangulating the city by pulling the ropes in opposite directions.

The post Delhi Needs Statehood, But Here’s Why It Probably Won’t Ever Get It appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Vivekanandan Balaguru:

There is a silent epidemic going on before the eyes of the general public. Millions of people are suffering from anxiety, depression, fear, panic attacks, and many other diseases related to the daily stress of life. As a society, we all wear a mask that projects to others that we have good control of our life. If we show our pain, we are considered weak and not able to fit into societal expectations. The pressure of fitting in leads us to wear this mask, more so for people who are suffering and cannot handle their pain. Desperately wanting help, many turn to Internet Support Groups because then they can create an alias and openly express their problems.

[caption id="attachment_49578" align="aligncenter" width="850"] Image Credit: JustCallMe_♥Bethy♥_[/caption]

I went through this same route myself. I wore the mask, hid my problems, and participated in many Internet forums. Having done that, now I see the time has come for me to bring these issues to the attention of everyone and remove the social stigma associated with them. Awareness is essential to the process of healing. In most cases this is not a disease, it is rather due to people going through a life transition process that often occurs in midlife. A spiritual awakening has common symptoms.

Here is my journal of experiences based on the notes I took while applying my new insights that I received in daily life.

Being truly alive means being filled with love. Only when we are fully alive and filled with love will we feel complete and be free of suffering, fear, and pain. If our life isn’t like this, then how can we get there? Everyone is born in this state but very few continue to live in that state. As part of growing up in the name of learning and gaining knowledge, we lose the essence of love. It is inherent in today’s culture with its increasing levels of stress and distractions of sustenance, survival, and the everyday worries of life. Our natural state is suppressed even more.

I was leading a normal life with everyday challenges, struggles, and stress, with occasional happiness. I would rate it as an average life, not only for the material success but also for the quality of life I experienced. In the eyes of others, I would be seen as a typical man with a happy family, decent job as software engineer, and having the necessities to lead a comfortable middle class life. I was content with this self-image.

But things turned interesting...

It was May 6, 2010 and it’s hard for me to forget that day, it was the day when the US Stock Market crashed about ten percent during the intraday trading and later recovered most of the losses. It was a wild day in the stock market and later the wild swing in the market on that day was called the “Flash Crash”.

I was very active in trading as I was looking for ways to get more money in my life. I did not make big trades but I would make one or two trade per week. On this particular day, I had high hopes. I had heavy bets on a single company that was going to release its quarterly release that afternoon after market close.

A typical day for me then was to wake up around 6 AM before the market opened, browse the news, and check my emails and then go for a run. I had my smart phone with me all the time so checking the stock ticker was kind of a natural instinct every ten or fifteen minutes. In between the commute to work I was tuned into the business radio shows, which give a running commentary on the market. I was very hooked all day long through the smart phones, computer, radio show, or television shows and my mood would be in accord with what was happening in that world.

On that Thursday, the market was not looking good. It was going down in the morning and then there was the huge crash around noon. The anxiety and the stress that came with the crash compounded by a very poor quarterly report from the company, in which I had invested, put me into a deep depression. Compounding that situation was a rehearsal for a community event in the evening. In the middle of the show rehearsal, I felt faint and kind of dizzy. Without attracting anyone’s attention, I slowly sat down on a nearby chair. From nowhere, an intense fear came over me with heavy breathing and a feeling of total loss of control. Initially I thought it was a heart attack but somehow knew this was something different. Even though I had minor attacks like that before, this attack was full blown almost incapacitating me from doing anything. But I knew that I wanted to be alone. I slowly managed to walk to my car in the parking lot and sat down for a while. The attack lasted for almost an hour and the remnants continued for an hour afterwards. I did not know how to react to the attack but it was a real shock. Losing total control of yourself for a few minutes with fear fully taking you over is very scary. It was a serious wake up call in my life.

I did not know what happened to me that day, but I had to understand what initiated the attack. After checking with the doctors I figured out it was a panic attack. After more research and searching on the Internet, I learned quite a bit about these attacks. Doctors advised me to stay away from stressful situations to avoid a recurrence.

But the attacks randomly persisted and I felt I had to drastically change my lifestyle habits, diet, and exercise so that they could be brought under control. The attacks could be triggered when I was outside in public places, so I had nowhere to hide. A couple of times the attacks were totally out of control and I had to check in to the emergency room, only to find out that everything was normal. The medical world treated it like a disease and they prescribed anti-depressants to bring it under control. I decided not to take the medication. I wanted to heal myself holistically. I would also suggest to others that they be very wary of the placebo presented by the medical community through medication. I encourage you to research and find possible alternative solutions as opposed to just taking the easy way out with pills that mask the underlying cause.

Having grown up with the belief that people can achieve anything, I was not going to swallow the anti-depressant pill as my first option. From my upbringing, I was aware of two choices. My father, who had inspired me throughout my life, healed himself of recurring asthma attacks by practicing breathing exercises and learning yoga. He did this by religiously practicing it while he was in his seventies. On the other hand, my mother who was depressed could not get out of it, even though she tried to heal herself with yoga, meditation and walking. She finally let anti-depressants be her only savior. She did get better and her depression lifted, but her dependency on the anti-depressants did not go away. Given this background and being a spectator of the lives of my parents, it was natural to choose the route my father took. I started to look for healing through meditation, yoga, physical exercises and diet. I was ready to make every change needed in order to heal myself.

I altered my lifestyle to focus and maintain control, however the attacks did not abate, instead they began to recur more frequently. I had to make some drastic changes; I did not have a choice. I decided to stay away from the stock market, switching the radio away from the business news. Instead of running daily, I did slow walking to bring the adrenaline rush under control. I changed my diet to eating lighter foods so that I never felt heavy. I also dropped all the distracting habits that made me lose conscious control, including alcohol. I read a book that would give me peace before going to bed which became a habit. These changes gave me better control over my life but there was no reprieve from my panic attacks.

The challenge during these attacks was the flight or fight response which was naturally triggered by my body. I did not have the control of this mechanism. [envoke_twitter_link]I felt like a passenger in a car driven by a mad driver[/envoke_twitter_link]. The symptoms of heavy breathing, fainting, losing control of myself and feeling that something terrible was going to happen, scared the hell out of me. After a few attacks I realized I was not going to die and I would survive. After facing many attacks, I figured out that they were illusions created by the mind and the attack was temporary from which I would recover. Some days I would wake up early, go for a walk or run 5 miles and have a typical breakfast. All would seem perfectly normal, and then bam! it would hit me again. Often when I was about to go out somewhere, I would fall victim to the symptoms and get into the panic anxiety mode.

I chose to fight the occurrences with will power and this played a key role. However, having tried this repeatedly, it didn’t help me cross the bridge to the other side. One of the best advices I had was to integrate the attacks into my life and let them happen without fighting against them. It sounded very simple but my automatic fight or flight response and conditioned mind never let it happen that way. The struggles continued for months, but the trust that I would overcome it helped carry me through those tough days.

Everyone Switched Countries, I Switched To A Different State Of Being

In May 2011, I was going through the naturalization process to become a United States citizen. The day to officially take the oath arrived. I had the usual jitters wondering whether a panic attack might strike me during the ceremony. That day, I settled in my seat amid thousands of people in the auditorium. As soon as the lights were switched off and the video presentation started, the butterflies in my stomach started to fly. Was this the beginning of another panic attack?

This day was unique. I had no choice but to fight the panic attack due to the circumstances. My seating arrangement meant I could not escape and if I had left the hall it would have made it more painful to go through the process again. However, even with these considerations something that never happened before happened that day. My nervous system, which normally went into the autonomic fight or flight response when the attack started, did not. Therefore, what the system usually perceived as an attack changed and let it go without responding. This happened as soon as I stopped fighting it.

It was a unique experience of feeling a sudden rush of energy through the body while externally looking calm sitting with other people. I realized I had undergone a major shift in my handling of panic attacks internally while externally I underwent a change of citizenship. Both the internal shift and external milestone happening on the same day was a significant turnaround for me. At this time it was not clear to me why this happened, but later I saw how it worked. I understood there was an energy that was activated in my body and my natural instinct to fight it caused my nervous system to treat is as a threat and put my body in the fight or flight response. This response created a variety of symptoms in my body, which scared the hell out of me, and [envoke_twitter_link]it was very hard for me to break the attack[/envoke_twitter_link].

Due to the way I had conditioned my mind and body; my natural response mechanism couldn’t handle the additional energy that was generated. On that day, it was the very first time I had experienced it fully. The energy started to shoot from my hip and it went to my heart, circled around the heart and then came back to the point where it started. The feeling of the energy flow was immediate and with so much fear, I could not enjoy it much. But, once you let the energy flow without blocks, the energy started to go from the hip to heart and circled back. The lesser resistance offered the higher the energy flow was smooth.

Here Is The Synopsis Of My Healing Process In Stages

This was my process to heal panic attacks, but my understanding is they are generic and you can apply them to any part of your lives. This is because the root of all challenges are the same. Whatever you do involves your mind and body and if you have a way to handle and understand that better, then anything external to us is easy to solve. If you win the war with yourself then outside reality reflects the inner victory. Whether you have a serious illness, a challenge in your relationship, financial hardships or bankruptcy in the business, all these can be solved with the following understanding.

1. Initial Fear: Why me?

When life throws a challenge at us the first response that we have is: "Why me"?

What actually happened to me was I had disconnected myself from being part of a universal being and lived as a separate entity possibly for a long time. So when it looked like I had a disease, my first reaction was: "What did I do wrong"? Instead of looking at the real problem I started to look at why I had been singled out to suffer this condition. That was a very natural reaction for my belief system from younger days was constructed that way. By relating to this challenge and finding the root cause it became my stepping-stone to major breakthroughs and led me to the next stage of life. It provided me choices to enter new routes that I had not explored before. It gave me choices of new exercise regimen, diet, and reading habits that impacted my life for the greater good.

Life’s challenges often cause a shock to our system when we first encounter them, but it’s important not to let them drag us down too long. Anyone who goes through a sudden shock in life whether it is a cancer diagnosis or a lottery win returns to normal life after a period of anxiety, excitement, pain or happiness. If we are a sad person even after we win a lottery we will return to that state after our initial excitement goes away. Others have the opposite default state of happiness and a shock like death of a loved one will cause a short span of sorrow after which they will return to their happy state. Therefore, it’s the internal being that we set as base that forms the state of our lives and dictates how we live for the majority of the time. What these shocks offer us is the chance to change the priorities in life and get more aligned with our inner self.

2. Blessing in Disguise

Whether we accept it or not, every challenge is a blessing in disguise. It was very hard for me to accept this fact when I was going through the challenge. Irrespective of how painful it was I now see the wealth of lessons learned about life, about myself and about the understanding of the people involved. After you get through the initial shock to the system, look to see what was the blessing in disguise was offered to you. In order to find this you need to dig digger to find the blessing. When you first start this might take years to determine, but after some time it is obvious and you see it sooner.

3. Embracing the Change

The turnaround happened for me after I accepted the challenge and started to see things as they were. In life everyone is susceptible to all the challenges of life. However we try to protect ourselves, we are always exposed. This is acceptance of the problem. It helped me to handle the issue without much guilt or pain. This understanding meant I didn’t have to blame the situation, blame another person or even worse blame myself. I accepted it as reality. The challenge was there for me to face head on. I thought this is what I had signed up for and this is not the end of the world for me.

The post When Panic Strikes: “I Felt Like A Passenger In A Car Driven By A Mad Driver” appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Video Volunteers:

Having a baby in a remote village of eastern Bihar in India means being pregnant with anxiety and a sense of helplessness. Without access access to health infrastructure to monitor pregnancies and provisions for emergency care, it is a life threatening situation for both the mother and the unborn child . In cases of abortions, women who approach state-run health facilities are turned away due to a lack of infrastructure and are forced to approach private practitioners. Most of them cannot afford their services. Here's one such case:

A 24-year old woman in labour was kept waiting for the doctor for 6 hours. The doctor on duty did not turn up and she delivered in the presence of a nurse. [envoke_twitter_link]She was forced to pay INR 400 for her delivery and even, to use the toilet[/envoke_twitter_link]. She neither received free medicines nor nutrition. This is despite the provisions of the Janani Suraksha Yojana, the Indian government’s scheme to bring down maternal deaths, which makes provisions to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure for women below poverty line —providing free antenatal check ups, IFA tablets, medicines, nutrition in health institutions, provision for blood transfusion, and transport from health centres and back. Mary Nisha reports from Godda district, Jharkhand.

The post Watch: One Woman’s Harrowing Experience Of Giving Birth At A State-Run Health Facility appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Reni Jacob:

भारत में लाखों गरीब परिवार ऐसे हैं जिनमें लाखों बच्चे गरीबी का जीवन को अभिषप्त हैं। तो इसलिए क्यों नहीं स्कूल के बाद बच्चों को काम करने दिया जाए, जिससे वे कुछ पैसे कमा सकें और गरीबी को मिटाने में मदद करें? केंद्रीय मंत्रिमंडल द्वारा घरेलू उधमों और आडियो-विजुअल एंटरटेनमेंट क्षेत्र में 14 वर्श से कम आयु के बच्चों को काम करने की अनुमति देने के पीछे तो कम से कम यही मंषा दिख रही है। बाल श्रम (रोकथाम और नियमन) संषोधन विधेयक 2012 के तहत किया गया यह आधिकारिक संषोधन भारत में लाखों बच्चों से उनके बचपन की खुषी छीनने का प्रस्ताव लगता है।

[caption id="attachment_49642" align="aligncenter" width="850"] Image Credit: Sam Theodore[/caption]

भारत के लिए जरूरी है कि वह देष में कानून बनाते समय और उनके क्रियान्वयन में यूएनसीआरसी में बतार्इ गर्इ बच्चों की परिभाशा 18 वर्श से कम आयु के मनुश्य का सम्मान करने की प्रतिबद्धता का सम्मान करे। एक ओर जहां सरकार बच्चों के लिए मुफ्त और अनिवार्य षिक्षा अधिकार (आरटीर्इ) अधिनियम 2009 के तहत यह सुनिषिचत करने की कोषिष कर रही है कि 6 से 14 वर्श की आयु वर्ग वाले सभी बच्चे स्कूलों में दाखिला लें, नियमित रूप से स्कूल जाएं और प्राथमिक षिक्षा पूरी करें और दूसरी तरफ अब अपवादस्वरूप यह नया प्रस्ताव ला रही है जो इसी आयुवर्ग के बच्चों को बाल श्रम में धकेलने की कोषिष लगता है।

केंद्र के इस कदम का मतलब है कि पहले से ही मुषिकलों में फंसे हुए षिक्षा क्षेत्र को छात्रों को स्कूलों में अपनी पढ़ार्इ जारी रखने के लिए पहले से ज्यादा मषक्कत करनी पड़ेगी और साथ ही षिक्षा की गुणवत्ता के मोर्चे पर भी अधिक चुनौतियां पेष आएंगी। षिक्षा क्षेत्र को अभी तक करीब 50 वर्श पूर्व गठित कोठारी आयोग की सिफारिषों का महज आधा ही आवंटन मिल रहा है। आरटीर्इ अधिनियम का उददेष्य बच्चों के सीखने के लिए अनुकूल व उन पर केंदि्रत माहौल उपलब्ध कराकर बच्चों को डर, तनाव और चिंता से मुक्त करना है। इन सभी परिसिथतियों को देखते हुए यह सोचकर हैरानी होती है कि भारत में जब 14 वर्श से कम आयु के लाखों बाल श्रमिक स्कूली समय के बाद या छुटिटयों में काम करेंगे तो वे उस डर और पीड़ा से कैसे मुक्त हो पाएंगे, जिससे उन्हें षोशक व अनियिमितता भरे माहौल में दो-चार होना पड़ता है।

सस्ता श्रम, यूनियनबाजी का कोर्इ मामला नहीं और नाजुक उंगलियों का समीकरण भारत में कर्इ घरेलू उधमों और अनियमित क्षेत्रों के उधोगों को एकदम अनुकूल लगता है। किसी भी बच्चे को किसी उधोग में काम में नहीं झोंका जाना चाहिए और इसका कोर्इ अपवाद भी नहीं होना चाहिए। सच तो यह है कि बाल श्रम को जोखिम और गैर-जोखिम श्रेणी में विभाजित करने की बात ही बेमानी है। क्या अच्छा बाल श्रम' भी कहीं मुमकिन है?

संषोधन में प्रस्तावित अपवादों की सूची कथित तौर पर गैर-जोखिम घरेलू उधम और आडियो-विजुअल एंटरटेनमेंट उधोग को षामिल किया गया है। तथाकथित पारिवारिक उधमों की बेहद विकेंदि्रत और अनियमित प्रवृति को ध्यान में रखते हुए इस नियम के उल्लंघन के मामलों की पहचान करना किसी भारी-भरकम चुनौती से कम नहीं होगा। इसके अलावा, संषोधन (14 वर्श से कम आयु वाले) बाल श्रमिकों को किसी अन्य एंटरटेनमेंट या खेल गतिविधियों में भी काम करने की अनुमति देता है, जिसमें कर्इ खामियां हैं, जिनका लाभ दलाल व नियोक्ता उठा सकते हैं। बड़े उधोगों के लिए तो राह और भी आसान हो गर्इ। हाल में किए गए संषोधन की बदौलत अब उन्हें सिर्फ अपना काम परिवरों को आउटसोर्स करना है।

इन बच्चों के साथ होने वाले अनुचित व्यवहार को समाप्त करने के लिए यह बहुत जरूरी है कि हम बाल सुरक्षा को प्राथमिकता दें और सुनिषिचत करें कि बाल श्रम की बहुलता वाले इलाकों में स्कूलों में दाखिला सिर्फ दिखावा नहीं हो। बच्चों को काम करने की अनुमति देने के बजाय जरूरतमंद समुदायों को उचित वेतन वाले रोजगार के अवसर मुहैया कराना ज्यादा कारगर साबित होगा। सरकार की विज्ञपित में कहा गया है, बाल रोजगार पर पूर्ण प्रतिबंध को ध्यान में रखते हुए देष के सामाजिक ताने-बाने और सामाजिक-आर्थिक परिसिथतियों पर गौर करना समझदारी है। ऐसे में हमारे लिए यह षर्म की ही बात होगी अगर 46 लाख बाल श्रमिकों को हमारे सामाजिक ताने-बाने और सामाजिक-आर्थिक परिसिथतियों की बलि चढ़ना पड़े।

The author is Advocacy director at World Vision India.

The post अब बच्चों के कंधों पर होगा भारत की अर्थव्यवस्था में प्राण फूंकने का दारोमदार! appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Chaitanya Mallapur:

There are 47 Islamic nations among the 177 countries of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that officially co-sponsored–with India–a resolution to establish June 21 as “International Day of Yoga”.

[caption id="attachment_49680" align="aligncenter" width="620"] A Muslim woman attending a yoga lesson in Bandung, Indonesia. Indonesia is one of 47 Islamic nations that supported the creation of an International Yoga Day.[/caption]

Yoga is a 5,000-year-old physical, mental and spiritual practice rooted in Hindu tradition, a religious origin that has caused disquiet among some Indian Muslim clerics.

This is the highest number of co-sponsors ever for any UNGA resolution, according to the Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The resolution was passed unopposed without a vote.

Delhi: Sripad Naik (AYUSH Minister) released a book titled “Yoga & Islam”, earlier today. pic.twitter.com/DwlFCGIWaJ

— ANI (@ANI_news) June 17, 2015

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, UAE, Qatar and Oman were among the Islamic nations that co-sponsored the UN resolution.

Source: Journal of the United Nations; Shapefile from Natural Earth Data; View data here.

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Brunei, Mauritiana, Cameroon, Libya and Burkina Faso were among the 8 members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that did not co-sponsor the proposal for the yoga day.

The Non-OIC members that did not co-sponsor the resolution were North Korea, Estonia, Namibia, Swaziland, Switzerland, Monaco, Solomon Islands and Zambia.

More than 35,000 people will gather at Rajpath, New Delhi, to mark yoga day. Among them will be the Prime Minister, his cabinet ministers and diplomats.

In addition, more than 1.1 million National Cadet Corps cadets nationwide will perform a “common yoga protocol”, established by the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH). So, too, will about 0.9 million policemen and women.

Some of the yogic postures under the common yoga protocol:

Source: Ministry of External Affairs

The word “Yoga” is derived from the Sanskrit root ‘Yuj’, meaning to join or to unite and dates to 2,700 BC, and according to this government document, considered an “immortal cultural outcome” of the Indus-Saraswati Valley Civilisation.

The government and yoga: close links

Yoga and naturopathy are widely promoted by the government of India, specifically by the AYUSH ministry.

There are two National Institutes, the Morarji Desai National Institute for Yoga (MDNIY), New Delhi and National Institute for Naturopathy (NIN), Pune, and one Central Council for Research in Yoga & Naturopathy (CCRYN), New Delhi. Granted Rs 101.5 crore over the last four years by the government, they hold exhibitions, seminars and conferences.

MDNIY recently started a B.Sc. in yoga science, and there are 18 colleges in eight states imparting a five-and-a-half year Bachelor of Naturopathy & Yogic Sciences degree and more than 50 stand-alone yoga colleges offering B.Sc., M.Sc., diploma and certificate courses.

The government has also proposed an All-India Yoga Institute.

This article was originally published on IndiaSpend. 

The post 47 Islamic Nations Join International Yoga Day appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Navmi Vijayakrishnan:

A few days back, the internet was flooded with news of the apparent unfairness of Gajendra Chauhan’s appointment as the new chief of the esteemed Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. It took me a moment to piece the face in pictures with that of the mustache-sporting, crown-wearing Yudhisthir who spoke spasht Hindi and had me hooked to the TV every Sunday morning. I spent around 10 fruitless minutes trying to recollect what else he has in his kitty to justify the entrustment of such a big responsibility before I came across an article that explained his political affiliations and - lo behold! I wasn't in the dark anymore.

[caption id="attachment_49719" align="aligncenter" width="687"] Picture Credit: FTII Wisdom Tree[/caption]

Interestingly, the phenomenon of political favoritism when it comes to official appointments is not a new one. It is common practice for political parties to pull out the wrong color grass and replace it with the right one – it has been done before and it will be done again. However, nepotism in the field of education is exceptionally lethal and should be done away at any cost.

Educational institutions have, and will continue to be, the breeding grounds for the future citizens of our country. It is here that ideas arise, ideologies are discussed, and studied and impressions formed. Hence, it is of utmost importance that these arenas of knowledge not be limited by any kind of political or religious agenda or arm-twisting. However, this is exactly what the current Government is doing.

First, Baldev Sharma, former editor of RSS mouthpiece 'Panchjanya', was appointed as chairman of the National Book Trust. Then, Vishram Ramchandra Jamdar, a professed RSS swayamsevak, was appointed as the head of Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur (although he was not among the four shortlisted candidates for the post), not to forget the much publicized resignation of Dr. Amartya Sen from the helm of Nalanda University, which was followed by the repainting of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) with a cluster of saffron supporters. And now this. Read it all together and you’ll realise that the paranoia and suspicion that greeted the news of Chauhan’s appointment was not uncalled for.

FTII, which had been home to the likes of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, and Raj Kumar Hirani, to name a few, has long been a space that treats cinema as an art. This is hugely relevant in today’s times than we imagine, because it still adheres to viewing cinema in its hugely multifarious role for social comment, socio-political reflection, and as an important cultural tool that makes sense of the society we live in. Considering the importance of free speech in the constructive criticism of society, the government and the culture in general, it is of utmost importance that the spaces that facilitate the same not be under the shadow of any particular political entity. This is particularly valid in the current scenario where the opposition party (or what is left of it) is as effective as a pen without a nib.

Last that I heard, the FTII students at Pune have launched an indefinite strike against this blatantly political appointment. Taking into consideration the reports that Chauhan was picked ahead of lyricist Gulzar and filmmakers Shyam Benegal and Adoor Gopalakrishnan, who were apparently shortlisted by the ministry for the top job, this is not surprising. Meanwhile, Chauhan maintains that he doesn't understand the reasoning behind these ‘blind protests’ and that he is planning to meet the students in person and try and address their concerns.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to mention that the reign of the[envoke_twitter_link] BJP government has been peppered with controversies of favoritism and U-turns from Day 1[/envoke_twitter_link], which is amusing since it is for the same that they had pointed fingers, with much gusto, at the earlier government. Needless to say, this is not going to be the last of the many controversies that the ruling party is so very fond of unleashing. In the meantime, as the headline of a leading daily goes, appointment of 'Yudhishtir' has triggered “an FTII 'Mahabharat’”.

The post From NBT To FTII: Is The BJP Indulging In Political Favouritism? appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Manasi Chaudhari:

I recently went on a holiday with friends to Pattaya, Thailand. On New Year’s Eve, after our party, we sat down at a Starbucks to relax. While we were sitting, my friend felt something nudge him in the back. Assuming that he was in someone’s way, he moved aside a little, but soon he felt another nudge. Meanwhile, I heard two men (presumably Australian) sitting behind us swearing at my friends and me, referring to us as “cheap Charlies” and “some shit.” We realised that the ‘nudges’ that my friend had felt were actually not accidental nudges. The man had kicked my friend on purpose, twice.

[caption id="attachment_49785" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Image Credit: digicla[/caption]

Outraged, I turned back to look at the man and glared at him. He made an offensive face at me and asked me if I wanted him to buy us some coffee (as charity, since according to him, we couldn’t afford any). He then threatened to call the police on us. I, in turn, told him that I would call the police myself. After some more of such exchanges, my friends and I decided to walk away and not spoil our New Year’s Day.

We tried to brush away the incident but somehow weren’t able to. Something felt wrong. [envoke_twitter_link]We felt insulted and mistreated[/envoke_twitter_link]. We couldn’t decide whether we should ignore those two men or report them to the police for racism. We decided to take the matter to the police.

We were completely clueless about whether the police would be receptive towards us, whether those men would still be at the coffee shop and what exactly we could do. However, we wanted to try our best. We went back to the Starbucks and explained the situation to one of the waiters’ there. He rang up the police. Unfortunately, since it was New Year’s Day, the police were extremely busy. By the time the waiter explained the matter to them, the two men had left. Without the men physically present, the police could do very little.

We felt quite disappointed to face this set back after having come so far. However, we did win a small victory that day. Instead of simply letting go of the matter, we had tried our best to report the matter. If we ever find ourselves in such a situation again, I know that my friends and I are better equipped to deal with it.

The reason I am sharing this incident is to encourage everyone to stand up for what is right and not be afraid of the end result. Standing up for something you believe in is half the battle won. Your silence will only encourage the perpetrators of hate crimes and racism.

P.S. This article does not suggest stereotyping people belonging to any particular country.

This article was originally published on the author's personal blog here.

The post “The Man Had Kicked My Friend On Purpose, Twice”: My Story Of Dealing With Racism appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Nupur Sonar:

Having a baby in a remote village of eastern Bihar, India means being pregnant with anxiety and a sense of helplessness. Without access to health infrastructure to monitor pregnancies and provisions for emergency care, it is a life threatening situation for both the mother and the unborn child. In cases of abortions, women who approach state-run health facilities are turned away due to lack of infrastructure and are forced to approach private practitioners. Most of them, cannot afford their services.

[caption id="attachment_49805" align="aligncenter" width="744"] Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons[/caption]

Last year, 24-year old Masuhsun Khatun from Fulvari village of Bihar’s Kishanganj district was expecting her fifth baby. She was five months pregnant in June 2014, when she tripped and fell in the front yard of her house.

Later that night, Masuhun woke up writhing in pain and bleeding profusely. Her husband tried calling a government ambulance but to no avail. He then hired a private vehicle to get Masuhun to the nearest government hospital. They found no doctors there and Masuhun was taken to a private practitioner, who informed her that she needed to undergo an abortion.

Two weeks after the abortion at a private health facility, Masuhun started bleeding again. This time she was taken to a state-run hospital, where she was told she had foetal remains in her womb. Masuhun was forced to undergo a remedial procedure at her home, under the supervision of an auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM), because the hospital lacked adequate medical facilities. Although, ANMs are not qualified to perform surgical procedures. Her condition worsened over the next five days before she passed away.

For three weeks, Masuhsun shuttled between private practitioners and state-run medical facilities. Her husband, a daily wage labourer, spent nearly Rs 40,000 on her pregnancy and the subsequent termination, including Rs 17,600 on eight bottles of blood required for transfusion.

Community Correspondent Navita Devi’s report reveals that due to lack of proper abortion facilities, trained medical personnel and access to public health facilities, several other women in Fulvari village of Kishanganj district in Bihar suffered the same fate as Masuhun’s. The ones who survived, live with financial burdens and a trauma that never leaves them.

This, however, isn’t just the story of the women of Fulvari.

India Has The Highest Number Of Maternal Deaths

56,000 women succumb to pregnancy related complications in India every year -- the highest across the world. Rajasthan, followed by Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, has the highest maternal mortality rates—the number of women aged 15-49 dying due to pregnancy related complications per 100,000 live births—in India, according to a report by the Registrar General of India.

Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand are other states with critical numbers. Infections due to non use of a sterile kit during delivery, home births without trained providers, eclampsia, postpartum haemorrhage, early pregnancies, anaemia and unsafe abortions are the leading causes of maternal deaths. However, these deaths are entirely preventable. According to government data, although India’s maternal mortality rate has come down considerably in the last two decades, urban-rural disparities continue to exist.

In 2005, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), a cash transfer programme, that incentivised institutional deliveries, in order to reduce maternal deaths in India. Women are awarded Rs 1,400 in rural areas and Rs 1,000 in urban areas to give birth in public health facilities, under the scheme. It also makes provisions to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure, providing free antenatal check-ups, IFA tablets, medicines, nutrition in health institutions, provision for blood transfusion, and transport from health centres and back. The scheme, however, makes no provisions for medical intervention in cases of accidents, and women like Masuhusn are left to fend for themselves.

While the scheme’s focus remains on reducing maternal and neonatal deaths, by providing free institutional care, ground reports by Video Volunteers’ (VV) Community correspondents reveal that access to prenatal and postnatal care, nutrition and timely medical intervention remain dismal in several parts of the country.

These reports are first in a series of VV’s project on Community Monitoring of Maternal Health in India. Through its network of over 180 community journalists from marginalised communities, VV seeks to report violations, produce stories, take action and devise solutions to improve the state of maternal healthcare in India.

Poor Infrastructure

Women continue to give birth in deplorable conditions at unhygienic and ill-equipped health facilities. While Bharti Kumari reports on how dangerous it is to deliver at the Telmocho sub-health centre in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand, Meri Nisha Hansda’s report reveals how pregnant women wait for hours to receive medical attention and are charged not just for medicines but also for using the toilet at the Primary Health centre in Godda. According to the health ministry guidelines a Primary Health Centre is supposed to have two doctors. However, no doctor was present at the time when Paku Tudu was brought in to the hospital. Her delivery was conducted by an ANM.

Missing Infrastructure And Health Workers

While India’s public health system grapples with a dearth of health facilities, shortage of human resources is one of the biggest impediments to the functioning of existing public health facilities in India. The absence of a health centre nearby also means that pregnant women have to travel long distances to avail medical services.

In interviews to Reena Ramteke, several women from Khatti village in Chhattisgarh say that ANMs hardly ever visit the village, and that the sub-health centre in the village always remains locked. A sub-health centre is a state-run first care provider staffed by an ANM who is responsible for administering antenatal care to pregnant women.

One Frontline Health Worker For 14 Centers

Frontline health workers are often blamed for dismal healthcare in rural India. However, they are spread too thin and are forced to work under inhuman conditions. According to the ministry guidelines, one ANM is supposed to look after eight sub-health centres. However, in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad district, two ANMs look after 23 centres in Baghmara block. Ahilya Devi looks after 14 of the 23 centres. “There is no water and provisions for emergency light in cases of power failure. In such a case we have no choice but to use a flashlight, lantern or candle. How do we put stitches in such a case?” she asks. She admits that because of the workload, she often can’t make it to some sub-health centres.

Out-Of-Pocket Expenditure

Gyanti Kumari reports from Bihar’s Siwan district on the shortage of medicines at the Rajapur Primary-health centre and instances where women were forced to spend money on medical facilities they are entitled to under the JSY. "The ANM charged Rs 50 per injection and Rs 500 to cut my daughter’s umbilical cord,” says Muni Devi’s mother.

No Cash Incentives

[envoke_twitter_link]Instances of women not receiving cash incentives promised under JSY are endemic across rural India[/envoke_twitter_link]. Satyanarayan Banchor, reports on one such instance from Bankheda village of Bolangir district in Odisha. “Why should we deliver at public health institutions when we neither get quality care nor incentives that we are entitled to?,” they ask.

Why Do Women Opt Out Of Government's Scheme?

In testimonies to VV’s community correspondents, women say that the lack of infrastructure, support from healthcare providers and high out of pocket expenditure discourages them from seeking care at state-run facilities. Unavailability of or delay in the arrival of an ambulance is another deterrent.

In August this year, the health ministry plans to send voice messages delivering advice to pregnant women to increase health awareness amongst them. The government plans to make use of India’s network of 950 million mobile connections to combat maternal and infant mortality. This might prove to be a cost-effective way of spreading awareness but what about safety of women who choose to deliver at public health institutions? How far will awareness campaigns take us at a time when the public health system is in complete disarray?

The post Are Safe Pregnancies In Rural India A Luxury? appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Prachi Salve:

• There is a shortfall of 73% and 55% in inspections of sonography centres in the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, two of India’s richest.
• The child sex-ratio (number of girls under six years per 1,000 boys) in the states are among the lowest in India, especially in backward districts, such as Beed in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region (807) and Surat district (831) in Gujarat. The national average is 914.
• Verdicts have been pronounced in 23 cases of 603 reported cases of child marriage in Maharashtra with 580 cases pending for 2013-14.
• No one has been convicted in Gujarat under the prohibition of Child Marriage Act, although 659 cases are registered.

[caption id="attachment_49855" align="aligncenter" width="750"] An expectant mother having an ultrasound examination in Anand, Gujarat. These diagnostic techniques are often used illegally to determine the sex of an unborn child.[/caption]

A wealth of laws and programmes instituted to protect girls are failing them in India’s two most economically-developed states, Maharashtra and Gujarat, according to recent reports by the central government auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).

Both states are failing to implement the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PC & PNT), which prohibits sex selection, before or after conception, and regulates diagnostic techniques to prevent misuse for sex determination used in female foeticide.

Strong laws that work on paper, fail on ground

On paper, the Act provides for robust implementation state-wide through a supervisory board and an advisory committee including an officer of or above the rank of joint director of Health and Family Welfare as chairperson; representatives from women’s organisations and an officer of the law department.

The chief medical officer or civil surgeon is designated the appropriate authority at the district level.

These authorities can monitor the sonography centres that help abort the female fetus.

In Maharashtra, there was a shortfall of 55% in inspections (averaged across all districts) in 2013-14, up from a shortfall of 43% in 2011-12, the CAG found. The highest was in Amravati district at 54%.

In Gujarat, the shortfall was higher at 73% in 2013-14.

“The joint secretary, health and family welfare department, stated that the state government had assured to increase (sic) rate of conviction by meticulous paper work, evidence gathering and proper submission, and strong pleading of PC & PNDT cases,” the report said.

­­­­­­­Maharashtra registered 481 cases under the PC & PNDT Act as of March 2014.

While 181 offences were registered in Gujarat under the PC & PNDT Act as of March 2014, only 49 cases were prosecuted and only six offenders were convicted, the CAG report said. The punishments include imprisonment, cancellation of licences and fine.

In violation of Supreme Court directions to prosecute cases within six months, cases continued from one to 12 years.

The failure to implement the PC & PNDT Act is responsible for the falling child sex-ratio in these states, the report said.

Child sex-ratio in Maharashtra is the lowest in Beed, Marathwada with 807 girls per 1,000 boys followed by Jalgoan in Khandesh (north Maharashtra).

In Gujarat, Surat has the lowest ratio of 831:1,000 followed by Gandhinagar.

The child sex-ratio in four districts (Chandrapur, Kolhapur, Sangli and Satara) in Maharashtra rose between 2001 and 2011 but it declined in 31 districts over the same period.

Sex ratio improves in India, not in Maharashtra, Gujarat

Maharashtra’s overall sex ratio declined from 920 to 919 over a decade (2001 to 2011) although the all-India ratio improved from 933 to 943, according to census 2011.

For Gujarat, the overall sex ratio declined from 920 to 919 from 2001 to 2011. However, there was some improvement in the child sex-ratio from 883 to 890 between 2001 and 2011.

Another important finding of the report is that the child sex-ratio is lower in urban areas than in rural areas in both states.

The report explains that this could be due to the availability of sonography centres in urban areas.

“The availability of genetic clinics in urban areas and awareness of literate people about usage of sex determination techniques could also be attributed to declining child sex-ratio in urban areas,” the report said.

The child sex-ratio in urban India stood at 902 as against 919 in rural areas, the report said.

In Maharashtra, the child sex-ratio in urban regions stood at 899 and 890 in rural areas.

In Gujarat, the child sex-ratio in urban areas is 852 and 914 in rural areas.

Children forced into marriage under-reported by both states

Child marriages, meaning girls/boys aged 10 to 19 years getting married, are common across Maharashtra and Gujarat, the report said. The audit found that both states were under-reporting child marriages.

There are almost 17 million children in India who were married between the ages of 10 and 19. Maharashtra ranks 5th with 1.5 million children married, while Gujarat is 7th with 0.9 million children married in the 10-19 age group.

Almost 73% of children married are girls in Maharashtra while it is 66% in Gujarat.

[envoke_twitter_link]The report highlighted the high pendency of cases pertaining to child marriages in Maharashtra[/envoke_twitter_link].

In 2014, 101 new cases were registered and verdicts were pronounced in 23 cases.

There were delays in nominating Child Marriage Prohibition Officers in rural areas while no officers were nominated in urban areas, the report said.

Though The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act came into force from June 2012, the government was yet to frame guidelines to assist girls during pre-trial and trial, the report said.

In Gujarat, out of 659 complaints of child marriages during 2009-14, court cases were filed in only 15; no one was convicted during this period.

Maharashtra, Gujarat: Money is not the issue

Gujarat contributes more than 7.5% to India’s GDP while Maharashtra contributes about 14%.

In 2013-14, Maharashtra’s per capita income (at current prices) was 45.6% above the Indian norm (Rs 117,091 annually), while Gujarat‘s was 33% above (Rs 106,831 annually at current prices). India’s average annual per capita income (at current prices) was Rs 80,388.

While Maharashtra grew at 8.7% in 2014-15, Gujarat grew at 8.8% in 2014-15.

This article was originally published on IndiaSpend.

The post The Missing Girls Of Maharashtra & Gujarat appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Rahul M:

They have travelled nearly 900 kilometres to get here, and now wait to be picked up for daily wage work. Uncertainty binds these labourers. They have come this distance switching two trains, from Puttaparthy and Kadiri, in Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh. "There is no drought work (i.e. work under the rural employment guarantee act, or MNREGA) in the villages, and we haven’t got paid for the work we have done for weeks,” multiple farmers told me. And whatever work there is, falls to a tenth of the actual demand, over the course of the year.

[caption id="attachment_49891" align="aligncenter" width="864"] Exhausted migrants, on the Kochi- Kadiri train[/caption]

And so, hundreds of men and women get on the Guntakal Passenger every week and reach Kochi. ​“No one takes a ticket while coming to Kochi. While going, half of us take tickets and the other half doesn't,” Srinivasulu, ​​a migrant laborer from Anantpur's Mudigubba mandal told me.

[caption id="attachment_49892" align="aligncenter" width="864"] A migrant labourer relaxing on a rainy Sunday[/caption]

Srinivasulu was caught once, when he was returning to Anantpur. “It was raining in Kochi. I had filled the water bottle with half a litre of alcohol and was drinking on the train. Halfway, I remembered I didn't buy a ticket.” So Srinivasulu gave the Rs.8,000 he had earned in Kerala to a co-traveler and kept only Rs.80 with him, and waited patiently to test his luck.

At Katpaadi, the ticket collector (TC) stopped Srinivasulu.

“Where is the ticket?” the TC asked him.

“I don’t have one,” Srinvasulu replied.

“Stand.” The TC spoke in Telugu, “Come along, mama (loosely: brother-in-law).”

“Lets go, mama,” Srinivasulu replied confidently. The ticket collector took fifty rupees from him and let him off with a warning. Srinivasulu, drunk and swaying, promised never to travel on that train again.

As the ticket collector started walking away, Srinivasulu said, “Sir, I don’t have any money to eat.” The TC verbally abused him. And he returned his money and let him go.

Kaloor Junction

[caption id="attachment_49895" align="aligncenter" width="864"] Tamil and telugu migrants waiting for work in the morning at kaloor[/caption]

Migrant workers arrive at Kaloor Junction early every morning; they wait patiently on either side of the road, to be picked for work by contractors and land owners who build roads and houses with Gulf dinars. On working days, they are up at about 6 a.m. to go to the toilet, bathe, and then line along the road. There is time for a bath in the river only when there is no work, says Nagesh, a labourer.

By 7 a.m. the junction is crowded. “Some months, there are easily over 2,000 of us,” a labourer says. People eat breakfast and pack lunch at one of the two makeshift roadside eateries run by families, often fellow Andhras. They serve muddha, (a staple diet in Rayalaseema, prepared using ragi), pickles and rice.

[caption id="attachment_49894" align="aligncenter" width="864"] A man selling lottery tickets to migrant labour from anantapur at kaloor junction[/caption]

At the junction, not all days are equally promising. A labourer may or may not get picked up for work.

[caption id="attachment_49898" align="aligncenter" width="864"] Women waiting for work[/caption]

“When there is no work,” a migrant says, “we get drunk and sleep.” People come here because the daily wages in Kerala are at least three times higher. “In Anantapur, we get Rs.200 a day. Here it’s Rs.650 rupees, sometimes even Rs.750,” says Rangappa, who sells gujri (old, discarded stuff) in Anantapur. Many recollect how a landowner once paid them over Rs.1000 for a small household job, plus alcohol and food.

Everybody living in the junction has a story. The stories are similar: a failed groundnut crop, thanks to multiple borewells, a lack of rain and the government’s failure to compensate them for their losses. Besides, soaring debt, unavailability of (and nonpayment for) MNREGA work for many weeks makes things worse.

[caption id="attachment_49899" align="aligncenter" width="864"] On a Sunday[/caption]

There are people of all professions here. In a few hours, I met painters, tailors, handloom weavers, an auto driver, an ex-CRPF jawan, an 82 year-old, visually challenged man, and several students on summer vacation. For Rajashekhar, a 17 year-old from Kadiri, who had just written his 10th exams, the wages add few extra rupees to his family. For the degree students, the money from Kerala is their college fee.

Balaji Nayak, 23, was studying for a B.A inTelugu Literature, from Vivekananda college in Kadiri. He worked on Sundays to put himself through college. But once the work in the villages started disappearing, he was forced to drop out after the second year. “A stomach burning with hunger is the worst thing,” he says. Balaji eventually got married and currently travels between Kadiri and Kochi for work, supporting his wife and old parents.

There are many students like him waiting for work here. “We have come after completing our degrees,” said a well-dressed student. “Some of us work here during holidays”.

One by one, house owners and contractors arrive at the junction. People crowd around them. “Contractors scout around for an hour, carefully examine people and then pick labour, depending on their age and strength,” said Veerappa, a labourer. By 11 a.m. as it becomes clear that there is no more work for the day, the remaining laborers chat for a while, or sleep on a corner on the footpath. Some drink alcohol at secluded street corners.

[caption id="attachment_49905" align="aligncenter" width="864"] A labourer sleeps around 9.50 am after not finding any work for the day[/caption]

At around 1:30 in the afternoon, some of the labourers who have not found work head to the local Shiva temple, maintained by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, where lunch is free. “The shivalayam saves a lot of lives,” a labourer said. “They give us Kerala rice, which is okay. They feed everyone. Most of us without work eat there.”

[caption id="attachment_49904" align="aligncenter" width="864"] Free meals at the VHP run shivalayam[/caption]

Once the workday is over the labourers head back to their sleeping quarters. Some sleep on the footpaths at the junction and on the platform of the local bus stand. Some others sleep on the terraces of houses and in crumbling old rooms rented out by Malayalis. “From 5 p.m. lights are on, but not the fans. By 10 p.m. the lights go off and fans come on,” explained Ramakrishna, who sleeps on the terrace of a Malayali home. “We don’t have access to the switches. After we pay the rent for the day, the owner switches on the fan. If someone fails to pay, then they switch off the fan, even though it is for all 40 people who sleep here.”

The people living on the streets face a different kind of problem: mosquitoes. “But you don't get sick when they bite you,” said 62-year-old Venkatamma. For others, it takes alcohol - to overcome the mosquitoes and the sultry Kochi weather, and fall asleep.

[caption id="attachment_49908" align="aligncenter" width="864"] People sleeping on the footpaths of Kaloor junction[/caption]

Anjaneyulu, who refuses to work for anything less than Rs.800 a day, reeks of alcohol. He is drunk all the time. “Ask Chandrababu (Naidu) to build me a toilet, I will lessen my drinking. We don't have a toilet back home. When we go to the canal, people yell at us.”

Each labourer at Kalooor Junction has a cycle of work. Most people stay for about 3 weeks and go back to the village for a week. Some stay longer, to repay old debts. “I haven't been home in a year,” said Narayanaswamy, a 40 year-old farmer from Mudigubba. “I send about 2,000 rupees every week”.

[caption id="attachment_49909" align="aligncenter" width="864"] 62 year old venkatamma travels back to kadiri in the train[/caption]

“Everyone has an obsession here,” said Srinivasulu. “Some are mad about cards, some are mad about alcohol, someone else is mad about the lottery.”

But the one thing they all have in common is uncertainty, as they line up on either side of the road at Kaloor Junction.

This article was originally published on PARI.

The post No Ticket, Will Travel appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Sofi Ahsan:

Sanitation in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) is among the worst in India, with more than 54% of more than 1.2 million households without toilets and the 2014-15 target for household latrines falling short by 86%, according to government data.

[caption id="attachment_49935" align="aligncenter" width="775"] The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi administering the Swacch Bharat Pledge, at India Gate, in New Delhi on October 02, 2014. Image: PIB[/caption]

While J&K is ranked third, the two worst states are Odisha and Bihar, according to the Baseline Survey 2012 of the Union Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation.

[envoke_twitter_link]J&K, a state of 12.5 million people, did not use about 96% of the money granted by Delhi[/envoke_twitter_link] for the sanitation programme for 2014-15, using Rs 4.66 crore of Rs 121.52 crore.

“The sanitation programme is at a preliminary stage in the state,” said Khurshid Ahmad Shah, Secretary, Rural Development. “We are taking measures to fulfil our objective, and it will be done very soon.”

That does not appear immediately evident.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much-talked-about sanitation programme, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA), is largely unimplemented in J&K, which is partly ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In J&K, 6,351 schools lack toilets for girls and 8,098 lack toilets for boys, according to data from the state’s Unified District Information System for Education (DISE Survey 2014-15).

More than 71% of schools have no basins or taps to wash hands near toilets and urinals.

“Sanitation facilities in the state are very poor, and this is not only limited to villages,” said Dr Nisar ul Hassan, a senior doctor at Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital in Srinagar. “The situation is similar in cities and healthcare institutions as well. Hepatitis A and diarrhoea, particularly in children, caused by rotavirus are common among patients where sanitary facilities are poor.”

40 cases of viral hepatitis, caused by unsafe government-supplied drinking water, were reported from a village in northern Kashmir last month, according to the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

Successor to an earlier sanitation programme called the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, SBA seeks to eliminate open defecation in rural areas of the country by 2019.

Slow toilet construction increases health threats

The state has done little to mitigate health threats from improper sanitary facilities for households and school children.

J&K constructed 42,239 individual household latrines during 2014-2015 against the annual target of 0.3 million, a shortfall of 86%.

The government was to construct toilets in 1,264 schools last year, but it did so no more than 87. Only 17 of 300 anganwadi centers (creches) saw construction of toilets.

The state has constructed only about 0.13 million household toilets in the state since the survey was conducted.
This is not the first time J&K has faltered in meeting the annual objectives of sanitation schemes.

Official data since 2010 shows the state never completed its annual objectives in construction of household toilets. The best it did over the past five years was in 2010, when it fulfilled about 60% of its objective.

That was the first time the state constructed more than 0.1 million household toilets in a single year.

The annual implementation plan for the year 2015-2016 of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was approved by the state on June 9, setting a target of 0.2 million latrines to be constructed in rural areas during the year.

Of J&K’s three regions, Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, two districts, Kargil and Leh, in the mountainous Ladakh region, did better in household toilet construction than Kashmir and Jammu divisions, the data revealed.

J&K has also lagged in the implementation of the National Rural Drinking Water Programme, with Rs 310.15 crore unspent in 2014-2015, with more than 60% of the target unmet.

Senior personnel from the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, in an official meeting held in February, reported there was “very low” implementation of the programme in J&K.

Schools lack toilets, wash-basins, drinking water

More than 71% of schools have no wash-basins or taps available near toilets, according to government data and 9.18% schools have no drinking water.

This article was originally published on IndiaSpend.

The post 96% Of J&K Swachh-Bharat Money Remains Unspent appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.

By Chitranshu Tewari:

If you thought that skyrocketing cut-offs were the only cause of worry for thousands of DU aspirants, you may be wrong. With just 9,000 seats for both undergraduate and post-graduate students, getting a hostel seat is tougher than making it to a DU college. For more than 70 colleges affiliated to DU, the university has only 15 off-campus hostels and just nine colleges with boarding facilities on their premises.

[caption id="attachment_49973" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Image Credit: Delhi room rent control movement[/caption]

Section 33 of the Delhi University Act clearly mandates the university to provide accommodation for every student. However, in reality, outstation students are forced to depend on private accommodations around colleges in a city that has one of the most exorbitant land-rates in the country. The situation is worse for female students as most of the co-ed colleges with boarding facilities don’t provide accommodation to women. This becomes a major hindrance for outstation students to study in Delhi University as those belonging to the lower middle income group families can hardly afford rent charged by the local PG owners.

Students’ Right to Accommodation Movement

Angered by the lack of hostel seats and affordable accommodations for students in the absence of standardized renting system in Delhi, a group of students has started a 'Right to Accommodation' movement demanding implementation of Delhi Rent Control Act, 1995, which asks that it include centralized hostel admissions and 24*7 reading halls.

The ‘Right to Accommodation’ students’ movement gained attention last year in September when seven of its members sat on an indefinite hunger strike to demand new hostels, better facilities at the central library, and a stipend for students belonging to economically weaker sections who could not be given hostels. “Even though the DU administration had assured the demands will be considered to call off the strike, a year later, nothing has been said or done on the issue”, said Praveen Kumar, convener of the movement. Naleen Mishra, another student who has been part of the struggle since the beginning, stressed on the fact that landlords in Delhi charge high rent from students without paying any receipt for the payment. “This unaccounted cash often contributes to black money, helping landlords evade taxes”, he said. Since May, the group has organized Padyatras and demonstrations in areas predominantly inhabited by students - Nehru Vihar, Christian Colony, Munirka, Gandhi Vihar, Mukherjee Nagar and Christian Colony.

Moving ahead, this movement plans to organize street plays and flash mobs to reach out to more students and underline the indifference of the University towards the accommodation needs of the students. Different student groups and teacher unions, including DUTA have expressed their support to the movement. “While the University administration and management in an attempt to emulate western universities has been imposing ideas like credit and grading system, free laptops, semester system et cetera, it fails to address the much needed infrastructure and other basic necessities of students”, says Nandita Narain, DUTA President and assistant professor at St. Stephens College. Apart from hostels and boarding facilities on campus, Delhi University should take the responsibility of making arrangements for accommodation in the vicinity of college campuses - something that almost all western universities do.

While more than forty countries have updated laws and regulations on Rent Control, Delhi continues to have an obsolete law (the 1995 amendment to the Delhi Control Act made houses with more than Rs 3500 rent fall outside the purview of Rent Control) that is not even implemented properly in the city. As lakhs of students come to Delhi in search of better education and opportunities - from Gandhi Vihar in east Delhi to Christian Colony and Mukherjee Nagar in the North, students from economically weaker sections continue to pay high rents for cramped rooms. Both the Delhi Government and Delhi University need to address this with strict implementation of the Rent Control Act and newer boarding facilities at affordable rates.

The post DU Admissions 2015: When Living In Delhi Is Harder Than Getting Into Delhi University appeared first and originally on Youth Ki Awaaz.